Play Book Tag discussion

I have recently been interested in the Resistance movement of World War II and have read a number of novels with protagonist in the Resistance movement but wanted a more in depth look at it, so I chose to read A Train in Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship, and Resistance in Occupied France.

This book examines the early resistance in France and the women involved in it, up until they were captured and sent to Auschwitz and at that point it follows them into the depths of hell.

When Germany invaded France and the Vichy government was set up many of those involved with the Vichy were already inclined to view favorably on an authoritarian system. Petain the head of the Vichy believed:

One of the reasons given by Pétain for the defeat of France in 1940 was the severe lack of French children. Young women, he complained, had had their heads turned by seeing too many American films, and by being told by the Front Populaire that there was no reason why they could not study to become lawyers and doctors like their brothers.

Petain wanted to reverse this sense of freedom among women. Contraception was illegal and Petain:

set about putting through a series of edicts and statutes aimed at strengthening what he saw as the degenerate moral fabric of France. ...

Families were declared to be ‘patriotic’; to remain single was to be decadent.

While the Germans and the Vichy government took hold there were many young women who clearly were patriots and wanted to take their country back. They worked at writing newspapers and pamphlets, distributing, helping those who were in danger to move to safer parts of France and escape, some were involved in making bombs and other acts of rebellion.

While the resistance was at work, the Vichy police also were and they were quite skilled at watching and note-taking on those which they observed clandestinely. Many of those in the early resistance were captured including women who were quite young on average. These women were ultimately sent to Auschwitz.

A Train in Winter goes into great detail about their travails there. It is not an easy story. It takes a certain fortitude to read it.

There are so many women in this story that it is indeed difficult to keep them straight.

One of the women who lived through Auschwitz, Charlotte Delbo went on to write several books about her experiences and states:

‘The life we wanted to find again, when we used to say “if I return” was to have been large, majestic, full of colour. Isn’t it our fault that the life we resumed proved so tasteless, shabby, trivial, thieving, that our hopes were mutilated, our best intentions destroyed?’ Her husband, she said, was sensitive, thoughtful, and wanted her to forget, and she did not want to hurt his feelings. But all she could think was that to forget would be an act of betrayal. She thought of them all, of Viva and Danielle and Raymonde and Annette, all the time and for the most part she felt closer to those she went on thinking of as ‘real ones, our real comrades’. So she had decided not to talk any more about Auschwitz. ‘Looking at me, one would think that I’m alive… I’m not alive. I died in Auschwitz, but no one knows it.’

While I am satisfied that I read this book and expanded on my knowledge, I cannot recommend it and leave it to personal choice.

Yes, this has been on and off my shelf. I think it is going to have to be a spur of the moment read-no plans. These types of heavy reads can ruin all my reading, or I can whiz right through them. Thank you for the thorough review!

Nice review! This sounds interesting. Adding it!

Joanne wrote: "Yes, this has been on and off my shelf. I think it is going to have to be a spur of the moment read-no plans. These types of heavy reads can ruin all my reading, or I can whiz right through them. T..."

I really wanted to show that there are parallels with the desire for a more authoritarian stance and also more laws and regulations which effected women's rights.

The one thing is that there are really so many women mentioned it is hard to keep them all straight. At the end of the book is a list and brief bio of the women, but I didn't refer to that, because reading it would have taken far too long and I would probably still have been confused.

It is very, very tragic and the section about Auschwitz and other camps which the women were moved too is hard reading.

This is a thought provoking review. I really like stories about the resistance, but I don’t want to read more books set in concentration camps. I’m taking a break right now from a book about a woman who was damaged by her experience in a Japanese prison camp in WWII. Life doesn’t just go back to normal after that kind of trauma.

The comments from Petain made me laugh. I don’t know how children were supposed to help win the war. If he was talking about the population of young men, I suspect that the deaths of all those men in the first war had a bigger impact on the population of both experienced soldiers and new recruits.

There was a similar pressure on American women in the 1950s to stay home and make babies. This is why many of us had to deal with overcrowded schools and job markets, and now there are more nursing homes than ever before. Haha.

I agree with your wonderful review wholeheartedly. It was an extremely difficult book to read (man's inhumanity to man is astonishing) but a well written story. The women's patriotism, allegiance to one another and downright bravery in the face of certain death was amazing.

Ellen wrote: "I agree with your wonderful review wholeheartedly. It was an extremely difficult book to read (man's inhumanity to man is astonishing) but a well written story. The women's patriotism, allegiance t..."

Definitely. Part of the point of the book is that the combined strength and friendship of these women increased their chances of survival. We get a sense of before, during and after.